


Bucky Barnes vs The Sock Goblin

by Pollydoodles



Series: The Pizza Dog Chronicles [16]
Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-09
Updated: 2016-10-09
Packaged: 2018-08-20 12:32:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,145
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8249170
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pollydoodles/pseuds/Pollydoodles
Summary: Bucky enlists the help of Pizza Dog against a new threat.





	

“Pizza Dog,” Bucky said solemnly, as he sat cross-legged on the floor in front of the labrador. The dog, for his part, wriggled in excitement with his ass barely touching the ground. The dark haired man put a hand either side of the dog’s face, and leaned in close, a wash of hot breath causing him to cough slightly before continuing. “I need your help.”

It was, Bucky knew, a serious business. 

Something - some unknown something - had been creeping into the tower and stealing Darcy’s socks - and he, Bucky Barnes, was not about to stand for that. 

She’d grumbled about it, with Jane, and he’d heard it when he’d been tailing after the little brunette in the lab that morning.

Bucky had followed her, as he usually did, from the breakfast table and down in the elevator to the bottom-most floor where Jane worked. He knew to keep out of the way of the experiments - had learned that pretty quickly, actually - and Darcy squeezed at his shoulder lightly when she moved around the chair he was sat in. 

Darcy had kicked off her shoes to clamber up onto a stool next to him, first to her knees and then to her feet, stretching upward. She was reaching for something that she couldn’t quite grasp at, even with fingers outstretched, and Bucky had slipped out of his chair and looped an arm around her waist to lift her the few crucial inches higher that she needed. 

“What on earth-” Jane had exclaimed, looking not at Darcy’s face, but down at her feet. Darcy glanced down at her feet, still wrapped firmly in Bucky’s arm and hanging onto the microscope she’d been reaching for with both hands. She rolled her eyes. 

“All my socks have gone missing again, can’t match up any pairs at all,” Darcy grumbled to Jane, as Bucky put her down gently, his hands still resting on her hips as her feet hit the floor. The brunette pushed a hand through her tangled curls and smiled up at Bucky before looking back at her friend. “I swear to God, they’re all eaten by the Sock Goblin.”

“The only explanation,” Jane said drily, raising an eyebrow at Darcy who wriggled her toes in answer. One foot was clad in red and white stripes, the other a bright green. Bucky looked down at Darcy’s feet. He couldn’t see much of an issue with them, seeing both covered seemed fine to him, but Jane - and Darcy - both apparently thought that they ought to match. 

The girl pressed a soft kiss to his cheek in thanks, one hand resting momentarily against his chest as she folded in close to him, and he turned blue eyes on her as she dropped to the floor to haul her sneakers back on. Bucky furrowed his brow as Darcy’s feet disappeared into her shoes, thinking hard on what she’d said. 

Sock Goblin. 

Something sneaking into the tower, into Darcy’s room, and stealing her socks. 

This, he was not about to take lying down. 

“Pizza Dog, this is serious,” Bucky said in a low voice, and the dog clambered into his lap and licked up his face, chin to hairline. The man laughed, and wiped at his face with the back of his sleeve. “We need to stop the Sock Goblin.”

Lucky woofed, and thumped one large paw down on Bucky’s thigh, which the man took to as a sign of the dog’s understanding. He nodded, and put a hand to the dog’s neck, hauling him in close. Lucky went willingly, panting hard into his face as he moved. 

“We need supplies.”

Bucky went first to Steve’s rooms. Steve, he knew, was always prepared for every eventuality. He’d watched him often on the television, dressed in his bright blue suit and wielding the starred shield against enemies. Bucky was definitely going to need the shield. 

Technically, Steve’s doors were locked, but Bucky knew that if you were to place your shoulder - helped if you happened to have a metal one, and luckily enough, he did - just so, into the doorjamb, and then press in hard whilst jiggling the handle, it would pop open. More or less. Bucky looked at the splintered door after he’d forced his way through it, and wrinkled his nose. He glanced at Pizza Dog, who was sat a pace or so behind him, gazing up with deep brown eyes. 

“Mission two,” Bucky said, pointing at the door, and the dog barked in agreement. 

Nodding to himself, Bucky wandered through Steve’s rooms and poked through the other man’s things as he searched for the shield. His quest took him, in a roundabout way, through Steve’s wardrobe. He hauled out a black t-shirt, and held it up against himself. Bucky nodded again - it would be best to be dressed in muted colours, so that the Sock Goblin would be less likely to spot him. 

He hauled off his own shirt, dropping it on the floor where Pizza Dog promptly crawled into the twisted material. The dog rolled on his back, wriggling into Bucky’s discarded shirt as the man pulled on the black t-shirt. He regarded himself in the mirror, then looked around again, finally spotting the shield which had been left resting up against the end of Steve’s bed. 

Bucky fetched it up, sliding it onto his arm. He flexed a moment, then realised that it wouldn’t quite do, not for what he was planning. He needed to be able to move more freely than the shield was allowing him to do so. The dark haired man frowned again, and then his gaze fell upon the shoulder harness that he’d seen Steve shrug himself into on many an occasion. 

Bucky grinned. 

After wriggling his way into the harness and slinging the shield on his back, he was ready to go. He whistled to the dog, who paused mid-wiggle on Bucky’s discarded shirt - all four paws in the air and even his tail freezing in place - before he scrambled an abrupt about turn and was at Bucky’s side, panting hard. 

“Next, weapons.”

Bucky trooped downstairs with purpose, Pizza Dog hot on his heels and the dog’s wet nose bumping into the back of his knees on every step. Dr. Banner, dark hair liberally peppered with grey streaks, blinked up at him as Bucky held the door open for the other man. 

“Uh-” The scientist said, pointing the eraser end of a pencil at Bucky with his mouth dropped open slightly. He didn’t manage to say anything else, and Bucky, looking quickly down at the dog for reassurance, gave the man a sharp salute before disappearing through the door. 

Bucky hauled open Barton’s locker - the metal arm once again coming in handy - and surveyed the contents. A stained purple t-shirt - Bucky sniffed at it cautiously and then allowed Pizza Dog the same chance, the dog licked at it liberally and then gave a low bark - a dog-eared paperback that was something to do with Tsarist Russia, and a folded bow. 

The dark haired man nodded approvingly as he pulled it out. It wasn’t his weapon of choice, but it would do. Especially since Steve had put away the Kalashnikov of which Bucky was most fond, he knew not where. Bucky hauled out the small quiver as well, and awkwardly hung it over one shoulder where it jostled with the shield still strapped to his back. 

“Now,” he said, voice serious as his hands moved to his hips and he looked down at the dog sat in front of him. Lucky’s tail thumped on the floor as he gazed upwards, eager for the next command. “Darcy’s rooms.”

Bucky had never seen a Sock Goblin before, but he supposed that it must be a small thing, capable of getting in and out of small spaces without being seen easily by most people. For that reason, he had also taken Barton’s night goggles, hanging by one strap on a hanger in the locker. It stood to reason, he thought, that it would come at night. 

Darcy had slightly more sense than Steve, in that she was well aware that Bucky could - and would - turn up at any time, and therefore left her door unlocked. The man slipped inside, glancing around covertly before beckoning to the labrador to follow him. Lucky, sensing that Bucky was trying to creep up on something, slunk behind him, belly to the floor though his tail still wagged as he moved. 

Bucky, bow strung and taut, arrow at the ready, scanned the room with narrowed eyes. 

“Nothing here yet,” he murmured to the dog at his heels. 

If he were a Sock Goblin, where would he go first? Bucky mused to himself, looking around Darcy’s bedroom as he moved, back to the wall and spinning sharply with the bow string pulled back, arrow at the ready. 

Ah. 

Of course. 

The closet. 

Bucky pulled the sliding door back, hearing it clang against its runners as he did so. He tensed, half expecting something to jump out at him as the door opened, but nothing stirred. Bucky narrowed his eyes as he peered into the dark space, then stepped into it, first one foot and then the other. 

He dropped, cross-legged, between the clothes that hung in the wardrobe and Pizza Dog climbed in beside him. Bucky settled himself, pulling the goggles over his eyes in one smooth movements, and readying the bow at the doorway, extending one leg to slide it back into position. Lucky snuffled as he dropped his head into Bucky’s lap. 

It had been some time, Bucky wasn’t entirely sure how much time had passed, when the door slid back abruptly and he pulled the bow back instantly, angling it upward quickly. At his side, Lucky barked, and Darcy yelped as she slammed the door back again, plunging Bucky into darkness once more. 

After a moment, the door opened again slowly, sliding back on its runners. Darcy’s face appeared, cautious and with a hand outstretched toward him, her blue eyes dark in the low lighting. 

“Buck? What are you doing?” Darcy asked in a gentle voice, and Lucky shuffled forward toward her on his belly, nudging his way past Bucky’s legs and licking the girl’s hand generously. 

“Waiting for the Sock Goblin,” Bucky explained, patiently. 

Darcy looked confused for a moment, and then her face broke into a wide smile. She bit at her lower lip as she looked at him, one hand rubbing the back of her neck as she settled back onto her folded legs, knelt in front of the wardrobe. 

“You are, huh,” she said, taking in the bow, quiver and shield as she swept her eyes over him. Bucky nodded seriously in response, shifting slightly and resisting the urge to bat away the long green silk dress that swung into his face as he moved. 

“Well, you know,” Darcy said, one hand caressing Lucky’s ears as the dog snuffled his nose around her knees, tail thumping lazily from side to side and hitting Bucky’s waist as it moved. “Sock Goblins only come out in the morning, Buck.”

“They do?” 

His face fell. 

Darcy nodded sagely. 

“They do. But, I think you’ve scared this one off anyway, with that bow and Steve’s shield and everything,” she said, leaning forward and laying a hand against his knee, a smile on her face as she took him in. Bucky let the bow drop slightly. He looked at the girl in front of him, squeezing tight on his knee. 

“I scared him off?” Bucky asked quietly, glancing up at Darcy for reassurance. She nodded again, dark curls falling into her face before she shoved them back behind one ear. 

“You and Lucky, yeah,” she said, then paused before speaking again. “Thank you, Buck. You’re always looking out for me, huh?” He dropped his head at that, suddenly shy, and Darcy crawled into the wardrobe with him, parking herself to the left with the dog slumped over his right hand side. 

“Hey,” she said softly, running a gentle hand up his arm and squeezing around his bicep until he looked at her properly. “Thank you,” Darcy said again, her free hand pushing back some of the shaggy hair that had fallen across his face. Bucky’s head tilted up and then he was pressing his mouth to hers, hesitant at first and then with more surety. 

Darcy closed her eyes as Bucky pressed in, enjoying the way that he leaned into her, the soft touch of his lips against hers and his hand travelling to her waist. When he pulled back, shy again, she smiled, then focused on him properly. 

“We should probably get that shield back to Steve,” she said, decidedly. Bucky’s face twisted, and Darcy frowned at him. “What?” She asked, gracelessly. 

“Steve needs a new door,” Bucky said sheepishly.


End file.
